skypix

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Great thread!

I'm 60 years old, but after reading through all the posts, I felt like a kid again and ran out and bought a couple (the local Target had 4, all the same freq). I bought 2, left 2 others for the rest of you.

Charged it, gave it a light toss, the little sucker climbs like a bat out of hell. No problem climbing, I flew it in my back yard, which is about 80 feet long and 40 feet wide, with 100 foot trees on two sides, 40 foot trees and a barn on the third, houses and more trees on the fourth. But no sweat keeping it in the yard...I even whacked it into the high branches a few times...it fluttered down, hit a few branches, I hit the throttle and it flew away just fine. Yahoo!

It does have a tight left turn...No amount of tweaking has fixed that yet...But I'll try the engine repositioning, maybe that will help. Maybe just built in to the plane too, who can say? I noticed lots of other posts, all said left turn tendency. It's so small, hard to check the surfaces accurately...especially with my eyes. TX trim wheel seemed to work for about 30 seconds, now does nothing so I quit trying.

Mostly I just power up, hold right rudder when I want to fly straight (hard to get much of a right turn at all) but it has such a small turning radius it's easy to keep it in the field. REally cute, really fun.

But everybody who praised this little beauty is right: it's a pure kick to fly and I love it. Can't wait for sunrise to go out and do some more tree skimming.

Tommyr

I see you have a plane eating plant! Charlie Brown had a kite eating tree!

So apparently plants love these planes too!

Tom

theaeroace

i lost my blue "a freq" to a 100 foot green moster with lots of arms. its still up there. i think my recent paper clip/shirt button landing gear is caught on one of its fingers.

theaeroace

shirt buttons off a dress shirt...... and some paper clips. lands and takes off. flys great too.

skypix

My Feedback: (3)

Opened up my second Aero Ace and it's a different frequency, so the package was mislabeled. Didn't realize it until I charged up the second one with the first TX and tried to spin up the props and it wouldn't work.

I may have to go back to Tarjay and buy the other two today, I can see having a fleet of AAs is an important indicator of status and wealth in the RC community.

Hobie

Big Milo can you post a picture of those lights please ? So far I can't find any [&o] .

gfl

Hobie - I checked Walmart, Target, and Dicks Sporting Goods for the Thill lights...no luck. Googled them, "Thill Fishing Lights" and found a location in Ohio - 1 Stop Fishing or something similar. Ordered 12, 4 of each color at $2.95 each. Shipping was about $6. I'm trying to figure out how Big Milo attached the lights. Everytime I put scotch tape on mine, I end up taking off pieces of foam when removing the tape.

Still looking for an affordable digital scale that reads to at least .1 gram. Any ideas brand names / where to purchase?

skypix

My Feedback: (3)

I don't think this was covered in an earlier post.

I've been wondering about the porpoising climbing thing. Opening, hogging out foam and moving the battery forward is a good idea. I also noticed a couple things:

The horizontal tail has a pronounced down moment, meaning that the relative wind and prop blast hit the down-angled tail and give it an up-pitching (tail down/nose up) moment. This is designed in.

So I don't understand then why down elevator trim would make the airplane go more "up", as some have reported. It should have a tendency to flatten out the climb, as you'd expect with a normal aerodynamic configuration.

The motors are also angled, when looked at from the side, to give an up-pitching moment, i.e. when power's added, it contributes to the tendency to want to climb. It looks to me like the thrust line of the engines is negative (flatter angle) then the positive angle of incidence of the wings, which would definitely generate a climb.

I also had a really bad left turn, so much so, after a couple skirmishes with leafless trees in my back yard in late dusk light, that I couldn't get the little bugger to go more than straight ahead when applying full right rudder.

I looked closely at the plane last night and saw that the motors, as micro_builder pointed out earlier, are attached with double-sided tape...and one of my motors was bumped loose and angled at a significantly different angle than the other one. I'm sure that contributed to the turning tendency.

Since I don't want to be cranking in much rudder and elevator trim (increases drag), I'm going to be playing more with this variable instead: motor angle both in pitch and yaw axes.

Has anybody gone to the trouble to xacto knife off all the little bumps on the wing surfaces? I wonder if that would make an appreciable difference...or if we'd be able to tell on such a small scale.

Also, want to take my hat off to micro_builder for those fascinating little minatures. You're exploring the frontiers of micro flight, love to see you start your own thread and share all the info you feel like sharing about them. I'd love to try my hand at them but am relatively clueless about how to assemble all the materials and develop the savvy for working with them. The design part is purely your creativity, and I'd approach that with my own designs, but if you're willing to go to the trouble, would you consider giving those of us who are looking build little miniatures more info, beyond all the good stuff you've shared so far? Thanks a lot.

Aero Ace squadron, man your planes!

micro_builder

My Feedback: (1)

GLF, try using double sided tape. they sell it at target and walmart or just about anyother place. its usually got a foam base, and i think its made by 3M (red packaging with green crosshatch tape). i've been using it for almost a year and it works great, no pulling chunks of foam, and its cheap too. as for the digital scale, check some tobaco shops, they usually sell them. if not there, this is the cheapest scale i've even found that goes to a .1g resolution: http://www.balsapr.com/common/search...ductId=V720515

skypix,
if you're holding the plane parallel to the ground, the motors should look like they're pointing down a few degrees, following the angle of the wing. when the motors point down like that, it would be trying to push the plane upwards. that, combined with the horizontal tail flaps (angled up) would cause a lot of porpoising. as you mentioned, moving the battery forward is one of the best ways to change the CG and really the best way to stop the porpoising. but, if someone doesnt want to get inside their AA, and it's porpoising, try angling those tail flaps down. a few degrees should be all it needs to change the flight characteristics. also, if someones AA is turning left or right, and adjusting the trim nob and adjusting the verticle tail flap doesnt fix it, you can angle one of the horizontal tail flaps down further than the other. this acts the same as ailerons on a normal plane to cause it to turn. just experiment a bit by adjusting the angles of the flaps, and it'll eventually be flying straight and not going nose up all the time.

as for making my own thread, i could certainly do that, but also know that i'm only one of the many many people making other planes for the xtwin/AA airplane electronics, so not all the credit goes to me (since you're a memeber at RCG also, go to the "X-Twin, AeroAce - Post your mods- Part 2" thread and the first post you'll see my TXT file that has a link to all the planes that have been made with the AAs electronics and other good mods). most of the planes i have made were made out of basic hobby stuff. i.e. balsa, carbon fibre, and superglue and its all pretty cheap and easy to get ahold of. i'll start a thread this weekend, giving a couple of simple examples that anyone could build in one night and have good success with. once you start building your own planes, this hobby becomes even more fun (i only flew the XTwins in their stock form for about 2 weeks before i gutted both of them and started making my own planes!).

nick

skypix

My Feedback: (3)

Thanks Nick, I'll check out the thread and keep an eye out for your new one, much obliged
Jim

mmackin

I actually saw this plane at Target, and it's not what you think it might be. It's a Target Exclusive, and it says so on the Box, but this plane also uses the same craptastic (one stick) controller as the Airhogs Dominator and the Airhog Defender. Sorry to pop your bubble. So it's pretty much like the Dominator, but only with an F-16 body. It is not the little Aero Ace Jet, that people are hoping for.

skypix

My Feedback: (3)

I went to Wallyfart tonight to see what they've got. Lots of Dementors (or whatever they're called, the Stealth Fighter look alike) as well as Estes WWII planes, other cool looking stuff. All of it with the "craptastic" one note Johnny controller...nothing like the Aero Ace.

Lots of that stuff on the shelf, except for one open space. I checked the label on the rack under that space: "Aero Ace, $39.95".

Even at that rip off price, Wally's is bailing them out the door. So much for "price rollbacks"...yeah, unless it's a hot item, right little greedy yellow smiley face wierd cartoony creature?

Target has AAs at $29.95, the new ones that shut off when out of range. Mine got blown downwind about 100 yards today, went out of range, the power quit and it spiraled down to the ground. Yay!

FlyDemon

I have trying to get an Aero Ace at my local Toys r Us. They don't have it. I also tried on line at Toys R US and they don't list it On Ebay they want $45+ shipping. Where can I buy this plane the the $29.00 that everyone talks about??

FlyDemon

WHAT I REALLY WANT TO KNOW IS WHO IS HOGGING UP ALL OF THE AIR HOGS AERO ACE????

Hobie

I got 2 after reading this thread . One at TRU who sold out in 2 stores then I got the other one at Target . If it wasn't for reading this thread I would never have got one let alone 2 . Since I got into glow planes I never thought I would ever get another electric but I always wanted something I could fly in my back yard and AA is perfect for the back yard . I finally found the fishing bobber light replacements and I got 3 a red, green and yellow LED to tell right, left and center . I havn't tried using the lights yet to see if I can fly at night because it has been too windy here []. Hopefully I get to fly today it has been too windy to fly for a few days .

FlyDemon

Who is the distributor of Air hogs ? Maybe I can contact him and get a list of his resent shipments. It is a waist of time and gas to go to a store only to find out there aren't any!

theaeroace

even better than bobber lighte are the lunker lights. mini glow sticks. ultra bright, 1 inch long by eighth wide, 3 for 3 dollar special. target has them in all their stores near fishing equiptment.

Hobie

I flew tonight with the 3 LED'S what a blast . Red right facing forward on right side yellow left facing forward and green pointed back . I flew many times today in low wind . It is so much fun flying in the back yard and I can even fly at night [8D] . The LED's may not be as bright as lunker light glow sticks but they are bright enough and the LED's will last for over 20 hrs and you can use them over and over.

BackyardFlyer

How did you attach the lights? And does it weigh the plane down any?

sal37

Hello all and thanks for the tips/mods on the AA. I took the lower wings off my AA and it really perked up. Great little $30 packeage. I have a simple upgrade that some of you might find useful. I have two AA's. I cut the charging plug off one of the transmitters and spliced it to an old 9.6v charger I had lying around. I am usually flying the planes around the house anyway. Its a lot better to charge these off a dc transformer rather than off the transmitter batteries.

Sal

micro_builder

My Feedback: (1)

sal37,

i dont know if i correctly read what you posted, but it sounded like you said you're charging your AA with a 9.6v DC charger. did i read that wrong? if so, nevermind this, but if you are charging your AA directly with that DC charger (the DC charger plug going straight to the plug on the plane), you definetly shouldnt do that. if you're new to RC, you're probably new to LiPo batteries. lipos are a lot differant the normal NiCD or NiMH batteries most airhog planes use, one differance is a lipo must be charged with a dedicated LiPo charger. charging lipo cells with a NiCD or NiMH charger could cause the cell to rupture violently, possibly resulting in a fire (i've read about a few people who burnt down their garages, or even more, cause they accidently did something they shouldnt have with a lipo cell).

technically, it shouldnt cause the cell to burst, as the circuitry doesnt allow any incoming voltage or amperage unless its really close to the voltage and amperage that comes from the TX charger. but, its still not worth doing. i think RCU should post a thread at the top of this forum that has all the info on LithiumPolymer batteries, its important stuff to know.

again, if i read this wrong, and you already knew all this, i hope i didnt insult your intelligence. but, if i read it right, its worth stating.

nick

sal37

microbuilder,

Thanks I didn't know that. Wow, what kind of dangerous machine did I bring home? I will read up on the Lipo . I do think this plane needs a better charging system, so I'll look around for the correct charger. Mayber radio shack will have something. The charger I have is a 9.6v 50 ma. for NiCads. So far its workd great, but I'll go find the rght charger. I don't need a fire. Thanks.


Sal

theaeroace

night flying high in the tree tops. this is me flying with one hand and taking pictures with the other.

theaeroace

eventually leads to this. they usually fall out by morning.

Hobie

I attached the lights to the top of the wing with little pieces of scotch tape . They are very light and it didn't seem to affect flight at all I will post some pictures later . By the way the green LED is not very bright I put it in the middle pointing reward . I would recommend 2 red and one yellow with one red in the middle facing rearward since the red is the brightest . Of course if the yellow falls off you wont know if you are coming or going [sm=spinnyeyes.gif] LOL .